The Tessa Randolph Collection, Books 1-3 Paula Lester (year 7 reading list .txt) 📖

BRAIN a few minutes to properly identify the input and process it as something happening to her physical body rather than a dream occurrence. When it did, the awful dream she was having ended. It was something to do with sandpaper—her mother using it to scrub off paint on Tessa’s elbow. Only now, with the dream over, there was still something rough and moist lashing over and over her skin like an old cassette tape on repeat.

Tessa bolted upright in bed. Pepper sat beside her, looking innocent.

Tessa rubbed her arm and scolded. "Really? Licking me with that horrible tongue without my consent? I was fast asleep. That's pretty rude."

The cat didn't act contrite in the slightest. She reached out and gave Tessa's arm another swipe with her barbed tongue.

Tessa jerked her arm away and shrieked, "Stop that! You're not getting any canned food anyway. We had a deal. You didn't stay away from Silas last night."

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Tessa groaned and put her face in her hands.

Silas. Had they really fought last night? Is that what that had been?

But that wasn’t the only reason she held her head in her hands. It felt heavy, and she was having trouble remembering the details about last night with Silas because she’d finished the bottle of wine alone after he left.

A full cup of water sat untouched on the nightstand. A good thought, had she drunk any of it.

She sipped and made herself think about the previous evening for a few minutes. She and Silas hadn't really had a back-and-forth type of argument, but she hadn't been very nice to him when he asked about her job. He’d left pretty abruptly.

Yep. That had definitely been a fight.

Tessa felt horrible, and not just from the hangover. She shouldn't have reacted the way she did to Silas’s questions. The only reason she had was because she felt so insecure about that entire subject. Should she come clean and tell him that she was a reaper? Or keep grasping for a lie that he would accept?

It felt terrible to lie when they were just embarking on a new relationship but telling him made her feel uneasy too. To an outsider, her job would be pretty unbelievable. Chances were, he wouldn’t even believe her.

But she was going to have to make a decision about how to handle this issue and then stick to it. Waffling, even in her own mind, wasn’t working out at all.

Tessa hauled herself out of bed and grabbed the phone to check the reaper app. It'd become a habit to do that first thing in the morning, so she didn't miss any assignments. Sure enough, there was one waiting for her, and she checked the time of death against the digital clock on the end table. She had forty-five minutes.

Tessa scrolled through the assignment to see where she needed to go and frowned, not recognizing the address. Luckily, the reaper app was set up for such things, and she tapped the screen until a map pulled up. It didn't look like it would be hard to find, and it wasn't too far away. Tessa decided she had time for a quick shower, but she'd have to miss breakfast if she did that.

A grumbling rumble in her stomach made it clear that Tessa's body was more interested in breakfast than a shower. So, she only washed her face, ran a brush through her long, dark hair, and pulled on jeans and a sweater before heading toward sustenance.

Pepper did her best to trip Tessa all the way down the hallway, through the living room, and into the kitchen. "No. I said you can’t have any canned food. Here's your kibble." Tessa sprinkled some dry food into the cat’s bowl. Pepper gave her a look of extreme betrayal, and it made Tessa giggle. "Okay, okay. You can have a quarter of a can. How's that?"

Pepper licked her nose and appeared eager, so Tessa took that as acquiescence and dished out the cat food. Then she got a pot of coffee started, poured herself a bowl of cereal, and carried it to the dining room table.

The scene of the crime. She tried not to think about Silas while she ate but wasn't very successful. She racked her brain, trying to figure out how she could make things right with him.

And she did want to make things right. He was a good guy, and she had a feeling he'd make a fantastic boyfriend. They just had to get through this rough patch.

Once she’d filled a giant glittery purple travel mug with hot java and petted Pepper goodbye, Tessa left the apartment. She wasn’t sure whether she wanted to run into Silas in the lobby or not. A glance at her fitness watch—which she used almost exclusively for telling time and fashion and almost never for fitness—told her she didn’t have the time to run into him.

Luckily, the lobby was empty, and Tessa scooted out without having to talk to anyone.

Linda, Tessa's 1981 Buick LeSabre, fired right up. Tessa let out a breath, relieved. For a long time, Linda had been sort of finicky, but she'd been reliable enough never to leave Tessa stranded anywhere. At least since Silas had taken over her upkeep, the car had been running better than it had in years. Still, whenever Tessa was on a deadline—especially to get to a reap—she was always a bit nervous about the car's performance.

Tessa set her phone on the passenger seat with the reaper app open to the map screen. She gulped coffee as fast as possible while she drove. She was grateful when the dull pounding in her head began to recede as the caffeine hit her bloodstream.

The destination was just outside of Mist River, where the properties were large and the homes even bigger. It had always been strange to Tessa that Mist River was such a sleepy little town but that this sprawling neighborhood of mansions was